Drawers in conventional cabinets are typically made from wood or metal and are not collapsible. These drawers are heavy and have limited use outside the cabinet. While in some instances these drawers may have been disassembled for shipping, once assembled they cannot be collapsed or disassembled again without great difficulty and oftentimes permanent damage to the drawer.
Certain soft storage drawers and soft storage bins are known in the prior art. Soft storage drawers and bins are containers having a body made from a flexible material such as canvas or leather. Many of them, however, are not collapsible. Those drawers and bins that can be collapsed have complicated structures making it difficult to do so. They require a certain degree of manual dexterity on the part of individuals attempting to fold or flatten them. Others are costly to manufacture or are collapsible only after the supporting framework of the drawer or bin has been disassembled into multiple parts.
Soft storage drawers of simple structure that could be collapsed and later erected into its original shape without extensive assembly would provide numerous benefits to consumers. Their light weight would enable them to be easily carried with their contents to whatever location is desired. When empty, these drawers could be collapsed so as not to take up unnecessary space. Outside the cabinet, the drawers could serve as storage containers or bins that, when filled, could be returned to the cabinet to serve as a convenient repository for the containers.
These soft storage drawers, unlike collapsible containers in the prior art, would furthermore feature stiff sides. Stiff sides are highly desirable since they would enable the drawers to be more durable and thereby have a longer useful life. Stiff sides would also enable the drawer to be self-supporting when erected and would ensure that the drawer maintains the same structure no matter the number of times it has been collapsed and later re-erected.